



c 




ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



FIRST FAIR AND CATTLE SHOW 



OP THE 



Hoosick Agricultural Society, 



HELD AT 



HOOSICK FALLS, N. Y. 



SEPTEMBER 24, 1857, 



BY HON. l. chandler ball. 



TEOY N. Y.: 

KROM GEORGE ABBOTT'S STEAM PRESSES, 213 RIVER STREET. 
1857. 




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ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



FIRST FAIR AND CATTLE SHOW 



OP THE 



Hoosick Agricultural 



o 



x y 



FIELD AT 



HOOSICK FALLS, N. Y. 



By Hon, l. 



SEPTEMBBE 24, 1857, 

HANDLER BALL 



I ' 






TROY N. Y.: 

b'ROM GEORGE ABBOTT'S STEAM PRESSES, 213 RIVER STREET. 
1857. 



Hon. L. CHANDLER BALL, 

I have the pleasure of tendering you the thanks of 
the Hooslck Agricultural Society for your excellent Address, and am instructed to ask a 
copy for publication. Believing that the Addreis contains important truths, which will 
do much good if disseminated among the people of this district, I hope you will oomply 
with this request. 

Yours, Truly, 



VOLNEY RICHMOND, Pres't. 



Hoosick Falls, Sept. 25, 1857. 



To V. RICHMOND, Esq. 

Your favor of the 25th inst., asking for a copy of tho 
Address delivered by me at the Hoosick Fair, is received. Your approval of the senti- 
ments contained in the Address, is highly gratifying. 

In the hope that you will not be disappointed in the amount of good you expect 
from its publication, I with some reluctance send you a copy, and remain 



Your Friend, 



L. CHANDLER BALL. 



3 - J 



Mr. President, 

And Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Hoosick, for a hundred years, has been occupied by a 
hardy and industrious class of farmers. Annually for a 
hundred years, this valley has yielded to the husbandman, 
its golden harvests. Since the Red Indian extinguished 
his fires, and left his hunting grounds, flocks and herds in- 
numerable, have fed and fattened upon these hill sides, and 
annually for a hundred years, given their fleeces to the 
farmer, and their bodies to the butcher and the drover — 
yet to-day, for the first time in the history of the town, is 
held a public fair, for the exhibition of its stock and pro- 
ducts. To-day we inaugurate the Hoosick Agricultural 
Fair ; and we hope that every successive year will add to 
the interest, the beauty, and the profit of the exhibition ; 
and that when another hundred years shall have rolled 
away, the inhabitants of this beautiful town, intelligent, 
prosperous and happy, will celebrate its centennial anni- 
versary, and while acknowledging the important aid which 
this institution has rendered, will hold in grateful remem- 
brance, tho names and the memory of its founders. 

The importance of this association cannot be over- 
estimated, for it connects itself with that business, in which 
four-fifths of tho laboring population of the world is en- 
gaged, and upon the successful condition of which, the 
prosperity of the whole depends. 

This Society is instituted to encourage and promote 
Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts ; to increase the pro- 
ducts of the soil, and improve and multiply the implements 
and machinery with which it is cultivated — to exhibit in 



friendly competition, the products of the field, orchard and 
garden, of the farm-house, factory and work-shop, and 
record for mutual benefit, the process by which these grat- 
ifying results have been produced. It is to extend the 
peaceful conquests of man over tho earth, and convert to 
beneficent uses its abundant treasures. It is more. This 
Society is instituted to honor useful and intelligent Labor, 
and bind, " with victorious wreaths," the brows of honest 
and successful Industry. And though no warlike banner 
floats above us, though no trophies stained with the blood 
of the slain, decorate these grounds, and no iron fingers, 
moved by the lightning, record our doings, yet doubt not, 
friends and fellow laborers, that he who assists in this en- 
terprise, performs an act as honorable to himself, as useful 
to man, and as acceptable to God, as ho who wins a battle 
or takes a city. 

Tho value of a measure is not to be estimated by the 
magnitude which it presents to the public eye, or by the 
excitement which it produces in the public mind. The 
gentle dew, though it falls unseon, and tho sun-light, 
though it approaches with noiseless steps, and gently de- 
parts to reposo in silence upon the bosom of night, clothe 
a world with the verduro and the beauty of plants and 
flowers ; while the blasted oak and the ravaged field, are 
the only monuments of tho thunder and the storm. So 
measures which startle the world by the boldness of tho 
undertaking, and the grandeur of the result, find parallels 
to the deep injuries they commit, and the dark passions 
they arouse, in the ruin that marks the torrent, and the 
desolation that follows the storm. But those labors which 
encourage agriculture and promote the arts of peace, which 
silently and unobserved, remove the forest, drain the 
swamp, cover the barren plain with herbage, dot our bold 
hills and sweet valleys with the neat cottage and verdant 
lawn, which spread with luscious fruits the tables of Po- 
mona, crown Cores with golden sheaves, and hang in Flo- 



ra's halls the richest specimens of her kingdom; which 
build the factory, construct the road, bridge the river, tun- 
nel the mountain, connect city and country with bands of 
iron, and girdle the earth with lines for the instantaneous 
transmission of human thought ; and which, while accom- 
plishing these magnificent results, discharges the higher 
obligations of humanity, by founding institutions of learn- 
ing, and building houses for christian worship — these are 
the dew and the sunshine of human life, which clothe its 
waste places in immortal green, and encircle the brow of 
toil with a more radiant glory than ever flashed from hel- 
met, sword and shield, or blazed in the regalia of Avar's 
ensanguined heroes. 

But, notwithstanding Labor has achieved for itself a 
character and position of influence and dignity, in some 
degree proportionate to tho importance of its results, it is 
still far behind tho requirements of the age, and far below 
the measure of its own ability. 

The art and science of Agriculture, though subjects 
of experiment and investigation by some of the best minds 
of the age, are yet but imperfectly understood. The max- 
imum capacity of the soil is not known ; the exact condi- 
tions, chemical and mechanical, upon which fertility de- 
pends, are not ascertained ; the best modes of tillage, not 
established ; the best implements not introduced, nor in- 
vented ; the highest developement of vegetable and animal 
life not reached ; and tho cultivation of the earth, though 
the God appointed occupation of man, holds a subordinate 
place among the departments of human labor. 

How shall the necessary conditions to further agricul- 
tural improvement be secured, and farmers take tho rank, 
exert the influence, and receive the honors to which, by 
their contributions to social order, and the welfare of tho 
State, they are entitled ? 



I. By adopting a higher standard of education, both 
general and professional. 

II. By a more thorough cultivation of the soil, by 
which its fertility shall be increased, and permanently 
maintained. 

III. By the more general introduction of improved 
implements of husbandry, by which farm and household 
labor may be more easily, and more economically per- 
formed. 

IV. By improving the breeds of domestic stock, and 
rearing only those animals which are the best of their re- 
spective kinds. 

V. By growing only those roots, grains, grasses and 
fruits which are the most nutricious, and the most pro- 
ductive. 

VI. By pursuing that particular branch of husbandry 
which gives the strongest probabilities of success ; having 
reference to climate, soil, markets, and amount of foreign 
and domestic competition. 

VII. By making the business of farming attractive 
to educated men, and the farm-house and all its surround- 
ings pleasant to refined taste and cultivated manners. 



It cannot be necessary to remind you of that first 
great law upon which all successful industry depends — ed- 
ucation — an intelligent acquaintance, not only with the 
manual operations of the farm, the dexterous use of the 
tools of your trade, but with the principles involved in 
producing from earth and air the fruits that load the or- 
chard, the grain that covers the hill-side, the grass that 
clothes the meadow, and the cattle that feed in the pas- 
tures, and fatten in the stalls of the husbandman. 

The want of education is so plainly written in the life, 
character and condition of the people with whom we come 



in daily contact, that none but the most stupid can fail to 
perceive it, and none but the wilfully wicked will neglect 
to profit by the example. I say wicked, for I consider 
ignorance, especially in this land of freedom, filled with 
teachers, and radiant with the brilliant discoveries of gen- 
ius, a crime, to which pains and penalties should be at- 
tached. The opinion that sins of ignorance will be winked 
at, and go unpunished, is in my opinion a mischievous 
error. The purpose for which man was endowed with 
reason, and placed but a little lower than the angels, was 
evidently that he should ascertain those natural laws by 
which the world and all organized life upon it are gov- 
erned. How else can he fulfil the divine command, to sub- 
due the earth, and hold dominion over it ? 

Without intellectual culture, the beasts of the field, 
and the birds of the air would be man's superiors, and 
would hold possession of the fairest portions of the earth. 

If education is necessary when only beasts and reptiles 
are our opponants, how much greater will be the need 
when the most ambitious of our own race, with intellect 
improved by the highest culture, with all the faculties 
sharpened by use, enter the lists in which life's highest 
honors and dearest joys are prizes to the victor. Such 
is really the nature of the battle in which we are engaged ; 
and the time has come when a professional education, I 
mean an education specially adapted to the business we 
pursue, is necessary, not only to respectability and honor- 
able consideration, but to comfortable subsistence. 

Science, with new weapons in its hands, and strange 
devices upon its banner, has invaded the dominions of la- 
bor, and taken possession of its fields, its factories and its 
workshops, its quarries and its mines, and requires that 
henceforth, all who enter its service and receive its re- 
wards, shall be trained soldiers, picked men— able to en- 



dure the toils of conquest, and worthy to partake of the 
fruits of victory. Men who will execute upon correct prin- 
ciples, and in the highest style of art the work required 
of them. 

Have you not yourselves felt the want of greater and 
more exact information upon subjects connected with your 
business ? Do you not experience great difficulty in 
obtaining competent workmen ? In short, have you not 
observed that a greater amount of information, and more 
skill is necessary now, to succeed in business, or to procure 
employment, than was required ten, or even five years 
ago ? The man who five years ago was acquainted with 
the best modes of tillage, and familiar with all the imple- 
ments of husbandry then in use, now finds himself, by the 
discovery of new facts, and the introduction of new im- 
plements and machinery, comparatively ignorant of the 
simplest part of his calling, and if he is seeking employ- 
ment, will either fail to obtain it, or be obliged to accept 
smaller and insufficient wages. 

The two great evils with which the farmer has to con- 
tend, and I shall offend ho sensible person by naming them, 
are, first, his own want of correct information ; and sec- 
ondly, the ignoranco of those whom he employs. When 
these evils shall be overcome, Agriculture will have 
achieved a permanent and substantial triumph, which will 
render all other acquisitions easy. 

Let the farmer look upon his occupation as a profession, 
which to follow with success and fill with honor, demands 
an amount of learning, not less than is required by the 
professions of medicine, divinity and law. Let the son who 
is to follow the occupation of his father — to whom is 
bequeathed tho farm, and the old homestead, that dear spot, 
" filled with shrines the heart hath builded," let him, who 
is not only to represent the intelligence and refinement of 



the present generation, but is also to embody and exhibit 
che simple manners, the homely virtues, the pious trust, 
and the warm, whole-hearted hospitality that character- 
ized his ancestors ; let him, first and above all others of the 
family, receive a collegiate, a liberal education. 

II. 

A more thorough cultivation of the soil is necessary 
to greater success in farming. . 

No one doubts, that if the soil of the field was as 
highly manured, as deeply ploughed, and as finely pulver- 
ized as the soil of the garden, the product would be very 
largely increased. More depends upon a fine deep mellow 
soil than is generally supposed. All that portion of plants 
which is left in the form of ashes after burning, is taken 
from the soil ; and is composed of lime, magnesia, soda, 
potash, sulphur, phosphorous, chlorine and iron. All fer- 
tile soils contain these ingredients in a greater or less de- 
gree ; but before they can be appropriated by plants, and 
converted into grass and grain, they must be rendered 
soluble by a very minute division, and by exposure to light, 
heat, air and moisture. 

A hard compact piece of earth, though containing all 
the inorganic ingredients of plants, will, if placed below 
the reach of atmospheric influences, remain unchanged for- 
ever. If you place it upon a cultivated field, let it be turned 
by the plough, beaten by the hoe, and exposed to the de- 
composing agencies that exist in the air and in the soil, 
and in a short time it will appear upon your table in some 
article of food, or upon your person in the garments you 
wear, or be sent to market in the form of beef and pork, 
and exchanged for tea and sugar, or for silks and laces. 

The more finely the soil is divided, and the more fre- 
2 



.10 

quently it is turned and stirred, the greater will be the sup- 
ply of food for the growing crop, and the more abundant 
will be the harvest. 

III. 

The introduction of improved implements of hus- 
bandry, and the substitution of horse and steam power for 
human muscle, are subjects which cannot be too often, nor 
too strongly pressed upon the attention of the farmer ; for 
on no subject connected with Agriculture, is there more 
indifference and prejudice. The mass of farmers seem to 
believe that mechanical science, while it has revolution- 
ized every other department of labor, is inefficient and 
powerless, when applied to the operations of the farm ; 
and too many of them cling to the clumsy, ill-adapted im- 
plements, in use two and three generations ago. 

That this practice is unprofitable, as well as opposed 
to the spirit of improvement and progress, which charac- 
terizes American citizens, can be easily demonstrated. 
But it requires no figures to show that with poor tools 
less work will be done, and more power expended. 

The manufacturer understands this so well, that he is 
constantly on the look out for improved machinery ; and 
when he finds an article that will do more work in a given 
time, or which will lessen the cost, increase the quantity 
or improve the quality of the article he manufactures, he 
procures it at once, and sends the old one to the auction 
room or the lumber yard — and experience has shown this 
to be true economy. 

Yet nothing is more difficult than to induce the farmer 
to lay aside the old clumsy and worn out tools of a ]:>ast 
generation, and provide himself with those improved 
implements which inventive genius and artistic skill has 
placed within his reach. 



11 

'Tis true that one is occasionally found, who is above 
the prejudices of the age, and in advance of the times in 
which he lives ; and who adopts with alacrity and grati- 
tude all the improvements which are made for the abridge- 
ment of labor, and the elevation of the laborer. If it were 
not so, inventions would cease ; discovery fold its wings, 
and the race return to its old condition of ignorance and 
barbarism. 

The importance of following up the searchers after 
truth, and obtaining possession, for public and universal 
use, of the facts they discover, seems not to be sufficiently 
understood by any class of persons, however occupied — in 
whatever business engaged. Though we instinctively ren- 
der homage to the men who achieve great victories in the 
world of science, and scale heights hitherto deemed inac- 
cessible, yet it may well be doubted whether those humble 
individuals who appreciate, understand, and apply the 
principles which inventive genius has discovered, who 
embody in tangible and enduring forms, and for daily use, 
the ideas which from time to time fall from the lips of 
wisdom; who seize the golden threads spun from the brain 
of inventor, artist, philosopher and statesman, and weave 
them into the web of social and domestic life, have not 
won for themselves equal honor, and should have niches as 
lofty in the temple of fame as the Newton's and Franklin's, 
the Fulton's and Whitney's of the race. 

The adventurous knight, who hews his way deep into 
opposing ranks, throws his life away, unless columns of 
trained warriors press into the crimson path, and assist to 
roll on the tide of victory. So the leaders of mankind in 
the great battle of life, though they prove themselves 
prodigies of intellectual valor, and with the spear of Ithu- 
ricl, cleave a glittering pathway far into the embattled hosts 
of ignorance and error, yet unless followed up by intelli- 
gent and discerning men, who are ready to defend and 



12 

maintain the truth, these pioneers and champions of the 
race, will go down in the strife, while hostile ranks close 
up and conceal the places where they fall. We may hope 
indeed, that when the evils which afflict humanity shall 
have been beaten back by the resistless march of science 
and the arts, the ashes of these great discoverers will be 
gathered up, and preserved in sacred mausoleums, and the 
world perform an annual pilgrimage to their shrines. 

There is evidently much too large a space between 
the whole body of the people, and those who have gone 
farthest in the field of scientific research and enquiry. 
Important principles have been discovered and forgotten, 
re-discovered and again forgotten. Useful improvements 
in all the industrial arts have frequently been made and 
pressed upon the notice and acceptance of the people, 
who, wedded to old methods and old prejudices, refused to 
be benefitted thereby, and suffered the inventors to go unre- 
warded, and their discoveries to pass out of the memory 
of man. Nature daily re-possesses itself of important dis- 
coveries, made in the laboratory, in the shop, and in the 
closet, and the world takes no note of its loss. Whereas 
the space which divides the great masses of the people 
from the intellectual leaders of mankind, should be filled 
up and occupied, so that all the useful discoveries in science 
and inventions in the arts, may immediately become the 
property of the race, and be placed among the permanent 
and enduring acquisitions of freedom. 

While the gifted sons of genius are pushing on their 
discoveries in the several departments in which they are 
engaged, planting along the pathways of life perennial 
groves, where the sons of labor may cool the fevered brow, 
and refresh the weary heart ; opening the sparkling foun- 
tains of poetry and song, kindling the fires of patriotism 
and of devotion, compelling nature to give up her pro- 
foundest secrets, binding the elements to the car of civili- 



13 

zation, and making the invisible powers of earth and air 
agents of human progress, it is the duty of the people, the 
great body of the people, whom these labors are intended 
to elevate, improve and bless, to lay hold of and apply to 
practical and beneficent purposes, every discovery and 
every invention in the wide domains of science and the 
arts. 

While the inspired men of the age push on, let not 
the masses hold back. Let no fire by freedom kindled be 
suffered to go out ; no discovery or invention be neglected 
and forgotten. Let no ground once trod by the feet of 
learning be given up to ignorance — no place where religion 
has breathed its agonized prayer, or lifted its voice in 
praise, be abandoned to infidelity and vice ; but let the peo- 
ple press up in unwavering and unbroken columns, and 
occupy every spot that genius and valor wins. Then there 
will be no longer any perceptible space between the lead- 
ers and the advancing column ; between genius and skill ; 
between discovery and application ; for then the masses will 
keep fully up with the progressive spirit of the age in all 
the departments of human investigation and labor. 

IV AND V. 

On the subjects of improved breeds of animals, and 
the growing of the best and most nutricious crops, I shall 
not have time to enlarge, but earnestly recommend them 
to your serious consideration ; merely reminding you, that 
as all animal bodies arc built up and their daily waste 
restored by the food they eat, no body, brute or human, can 
reach that perfect and complete developement designed by 
the Creator, unless its food contains in just proportions, 
and in the highest state of perfection, all the substances of 
which that body is composed. 

While animals are dependent for growth and healthy 
developement upon nutricious food, the grasses and grains 



14 

upon which they feed can only be raised upon a fertile soil 
— so that the richer the soil, the more luxuriant will be the 
vegetation, and the more vigorous, physicially and mental- 
ly, will be the animals whose life and power it sustains. 

The term, our Mother Earth, is not merely a poet's 
license. It is the fitting expression of a great and sublime 
truth. The more attention and respect we bestow upon 
this parent, the more bounteous will be her return — the 
richer her gifts, the more abundant her blessings. 

VI. 

The natural adaption of certain districts to particular 
pursuits, is a fact universally admitted, and should never 
be lost sight of by the farmer. Hence the physicial 
resources, and business facilities of any region must be 
considered, before deciding upon the character and extent 
of the industrial pursuits, in which the people should 
engage. 

The district of which Hoosick forms a part, extends 
from the southern limits of Rensselaer County, to the 
borders of Lake Champlain ; and from the western base of 
the Green Mountains to the Hudson River. This district 
has strongly marked features, which indicate the nature and 
extent of its resources, and point unerringly to the occu- 
pations in which the people may engage, with the strong- 
est assurances of success. 

Though the land is somewhat rough and broken, and 
has a mean elevation of about 700 feet above tide water, 
yet its agricultural capacities are not surpassed by any dis- 
trict in this State, or in the Union. The sun does not look 
upon richer or more productive lands than lie in the valleys 
of the Hoosick, the Walloomsac, and the Battenkill. The 
high figures which our premium crops have reached, and 



15 

the number of prizes, running through all the departments 
of husbandry, which our farmers annually bear away from 
State and National Exhibitions, attest the truth of this 
seemingly bold assertion. 

When Spring puts on her emerald robe, and leads out 
to rich pastures, the flocks and herds which Winter has 
released ; when Summer sends its heat deep into the soil, 
and calls forth all its productive energies, and when 
Autumn passes over woodland and field, ripening the grain, 
tinting the fruits, coloring the forest leaves with brighter 
hues than painter ever placed upon canvass ; and finally, as 
a parting benediction, lays down its golden glories at the 
feet of the husbandman ; this district presents pictures of 
beauty, combined with comfort and substantial wealth, 
which neither the broad plantations of the South, nor the 
endless prairies of the West, can exhibit. 

Science confirms what these appearances lead us to 
expect. Chemical analysis has shown that the soil of this 
district is rich in all the inorganic ingredients which are 
found in plants — especially is it rich in those substances 
required by cereal crops — lime, potash, and the phosphates. 
This may be known by the size and beauty of its cattle, 
and the strength, activity and enterprise of its men. For 
you know that animals reared upon farms abounding in 
phosphate of lime, will be larger, more hardy, and have 
the osseous and muscular systems more fully developed. 

The same is true of the human family, as may be seen 
by comparing the puny dwarfish Chinese who lives on rice 
and those vegetables which are chiefly composed of carbon 
and water, with the tall stalwart American, whose food 
consists of the bread of wheat and corn, and the flesh of 
animals, both rich in lime and phosphorous. 



16 

This district is naturally adapted to the growth of wheat 
and corn, as well as the coarser grains, and the roots and veg- 
etables which are found in this latitude ; while for grazing, 
both of sheep and cattle, it is unsurpassed. Hoosick has 
numbered more sheep, and grown finer wool than any oth- 
er town in the United States. Its fine cattle have long- 
attracted the attention of breeders, and the dairies of the 
district are noted for excellence, and sought for by many 
dealers. 

Markets for all our surplus productions are plenty, 
and of easy access. New England, stretching out her iron 
arms for food to supply her manufacturing population, will 
be a constant and liberal purchaser ; while the cities upon 
the Hudson, and the seaboard, will receive all that may be 
sent in that direction. 

The farmer of this district may therefore choose that 
branch of husbandry which suits his taste or condition 
best, and pursue it with the certainty, that guided by sci- 
ence, and assisted by art, the products will be abundant, 
and the surplus find a ready sale at remunerating prices. 

Other features characterize this district, which give 
it additional importance. Along its numerous valleys run 
bright and swift streams, which leap along from ledge to 
ledge, and offer as they pass, in the cheerful tones of a 
workman who never tires, to turn the wheel, drive the saw, 
throw the shuttle, blow at the forge, strike at the anvil, 
and move all the machinery which has been invented as a 
substitute for human hands and muscles. 

Every hill and mountain side throughout this whole 
region are covered with valuable timber, and filled with 
mines of ore, quarries of marble, building stone, roofing- 
slate, and materials for lime, brick, glass, and pottery ; all 
waiting for the transforming hands of industry and skill, 



17 

to be converted into articles of use and beauty, with which 
to supply the wants, gratify the taste, and increase the 
wealth of the people. 

This district derives additional importance from the 
fact that its resources are exhaustless, and the means of 
successful labor, unchangeable. While the streams flow 
over their rocky beds, while the hills stand, and the soil 
remains, these benefits will last. 

You who are in possession of this region, rich in soil, 
beautiful in scenery, watered by pure streams, and swept 
over by the health giving breezes from the mountains, have 
secured to yourselves an advantage which can never be 
taken away from you. While other persons are obliged to 
leave the homes of their youth and the bones of their 
ancestors, to follow in the shifting course of business and 
of population, you can enjoy all the benefits and all the 
blessings, which science and the arts are shedding over the 
land ; and while you are enlarging your business, increasing 
your wealth, adding to your knowledge, extending your 
influence, and reaching up to a higher social and moral 
perfectability, you can preserve your seat at the old hearth- 
stone, worship in the church your grand-sires built, and 
when you die, be deposited in the tombs and by the side of 
your fathers and your kindred. 

Possessing these unlimited resources, and these great 
advantages, your duty is clear. It is written in the mine 
and in the quarry, and in the mountain forests, and is 
uttered unceasingly by the rapid and the waterfall. 

While one portion of the people are engaged in till- 
ing the soil, increasing and improving all its productions, 
covering the fields with richer harvests, filling the stalls 
and pastures with finer cattle, and the house with happier 

men and women ; the other should convert the mineral and 
3 



18 

forest treasures of this district to the uses of man — give 
profitable employment to the mechanic — create new, near- 
er, and better markets for the products of the farm — draw 
more closely the bonds that unite the farmer, the mechanic, 
the manufacturer, the merchant, and the man of letters. 
Spread the great truth that all industrial pursuits, whether 
of the head or the hands, are streams from the exhaustless 
fountain of labor ; which after fertilizing the regions 
through which they flow, and mingling together in the 
great ocean of human necessity, return like the cloud and 
the rain, to replenish and bless the source from whence 
they sprung. Leave none of the resources, whether of the 
soil, the forest, the quarry or the mine, undeveloped ; but 
secure all these abounding elements of wealth, and use 
them for the noble purpose for which they were designed, 
the full developement of physicial and intellectual life. 

VII. 

Another consideration, and the last I shall present, is the 
importance of making the business of farming attractive, 
and the farm house and all that pertains to it, convenient 
and pleasant. 

No business can be attractive that is not performed 
with neatness and order, by worthy and intelligent workmen. 
Farmers, as a class, are too indifferent to the neat, tidy and 
thriving appearance of the farm and the dwelling house, 
and seem not to know how much of their own comfort, 
cheerfulness, good nature, and hearty performance of their 
daily labor depend upon these outward conditions. If the 
crops are satisfactory, if the barn and the granary are well 
filled they are content, though the fences are lined with bri- 
ars, the gates broken, buildings dilapidated, and the door- 
yard and road side obstructed by broken implements and 
useless lumber. A little time and a small amount of means, 
would remove these defects ; unimportant, perhaps, to those 



19 

who are familiar with them, but which are nevertheless 
offensive to the eye of taste, and do really lessen the value of 
the farm, and the attractiveness of farm labor. 

That the occupation of farming admits of the exer- 
cise of more good taste, and a greater display of artistic 
embellishment than any other business or profession, will 
be readily admitted. Nature provides, with lavish hand, 
materials for the most gorgeous decoration. The brook, 
the green bank, the grey rock, the majestic tree, the gay 
flower and fragant herb, and the "brave old plant, creeping 
where no life is seen," are features which art cannot imi- 
tate, and none but a dweller in the country can possess. 
To arrange these objects so that while the comfort and 
taste of the owner are gratified and increased, they will 
strike the beholder with a sense of beauty and delight, is 
the province and the duty of the farmer. 

The dwelling-house should receive more attention, not 
only as regards its adaptation to the requirements of labor, 
but for its moral effect upon the family ; most of whose inner 
and better life is spent within its walls. 

Household labor might be greatly lessened, and many 
petty annoyances wholly avoided, if the house was prop- 
erly constructed and provided with those conveniences 
which country life and rural labor require. Money is well 
invested when it is spent in increasing the sum of house- 
hold comforts — in securing the free admission of light and 
air, procuring an easy and abundant supply of water, pro- 
viding more convenient apparatus for the wash-house and 
the dairy room ; better utensils for the kitchen, nicer ware 
for the table, more appropriate furniture for the living 
room ; the nice center table, the easy chair, the well filled 
book case ; these will pay a dividend, of solid substantial 
enjoyment, when Banks fail and Stocks are worthless. 



20 

1 have a friend whose house, though by no means 
expensive, is a model of architectural beauty. It is fur- 
nished with exquisite taste, and supplied with all the 
conveniences that can lessen the labor and increase the com- 
forts of housekeeping. In answer to the question, how he 
could afford to have so many nice things ; he said he never 
put the question to himself in that form — he never asked 
whether he could afford to have an article of household 
convenience ; but whether he could afford to do without it. 
The remark was treasured up, as containing a truth of great 
practical importance. I repeat it to you, and ask if in 
view of the truer and better modes of living to which you 
hope to attain, and introduce your children, there is not a 
long list of articles which minister to the comforts and 
pleasures of domestic life, which you cannot afford to do 
without. 

The moral considerations connected with this subject 
should not be overlooked. I am not prepared to say that 
vice and immorality do not dwell within ornamented 
walls and under gilded roofs ; but I do insist that a beau- 
tiful house tastefully furnished and decorated, grounds 
handsomely laid out and embellished, beautiful flowers, rare 
plants, noble trees, graceful statuary, with hospitality at 
the gate, welcome at the door, courtesy and refinement in 
the house, have an influence in training the hands to indus- 
try and the heart to virtue, which cannot be over estima- 
ted. The senses, the eye and the ear, are avenues through 
which life's deepest fountains are reached and moved. As 
devotion is excited by the grandeur of the cathedral, the 
solemn chaunt of its deep toned organ, the mystic symbols 
upon the altar, the glowing pictures of the Saviour and 
the cross, so the heart is moved to love and respect, and 
obedience, filled with affectionate desires and holy sympa- 
thies, by the presence of those consecrated objects with 
which genius and taste decorate the house, embellish the 



21 

grounds, and clothe with a serene and spiritual beauty the 
homes they inhabit. 

1 have thus, in a brief and imperfect manner, indica- 
ted some of the means by which the condition of the farmer 
may be improved, and his full share of life's blessings, 
its honors and its rewards be obtained. If you devote 
your energies to develope the resources of the district in 
which you live, if you use your wealth for beneficent pur- 
poses — to improve and beautify the farm and the dwelling- 
house, to encourage the liberal arts, support education, ex- 
tend knowledge and diffuse Christianity, you will doubtless 
act in harmony with Heaven's design, and secure the social 
advancement and intellectual elevation of the class to 
which you belong. 

Then will you fulfil that law of man's being, which 
makes honorable fame depend upon a life of useful labor. 
And then will the execution of earthly duties and the pos- 
session of earthly honors, prepare you to perform the 
delightful labor, and receive the glorious rewards of an- 
other and a better life. 



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